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Company | Our Staff | Programmes | Customer Feedback
The courses and private guiding are organised by Alan Kimber.
Alan is a fully qualified Mountaineering Instructor and International
Mountain Guide with forty years' experience of instructing mountain
based skills to a wide variety of people, both young and not so
young! The work has been spread amongst local education authorities,
Sports Council Alan's wife Sue is another essential part of the team and organises the accommodation at Calluna which is home base for West Coast Mountain Guides. Between us we hope to make your visit, safe, enjoyable and memorable. Closer to home Alan has written a guide-book to Winter Climbs Ben Nevis & Glen Coe and took the part of Norman Collie in 'The Edge', a BBC series portraying a history of Scottish mountaineering.
West Coast Mountain Guides realise that work experience for instructors moving up through the UK and international awards structure is vital. We pride ourselves in the fact that numerous trainee instructors and guides have worked for us successfully over many years, before attaining their full IFMGA or AMI qualifications. We do not have a 100% safety record, but neither do many other similar mountain companies.Mountains are potentially dangerous arenas. West Coast Mountain Guides have never had clients fatally injured and we aim to keep it that way if at all possible. The experience and quality of the instructors, whether trainee or fully qualified should be your guarantee of attention to detail, safety, enjoyment and success. All of the instructors and guides will be freelance and you may well meet them with other companies whom they work for in other parts of the UK and abroad. Staff for alpine courses and guiding will be members of the IFMGA as required by law in many alpine countries. Please be aware that taking a non IFMGA qualified guide in the Alps may invalidate alpine insurance policies.
The programmes cover all mountaineering activities from Hill Walking and Scrambling to summer and winter Climbing and Alpinism. A progression is maintained and many customers return for a taste of different activities at a higher level or new location. Novice, intermediate and expert are welcome. Many people harbour personal ambitions and these are carefully catered for, whether it be a simple walk, the Aonach Eagach or Tower Ridge, the Inaccessible Pinnacle, Mont Blanc or the Matterhorn.
All levels of ability are catered for. Many customers return for a course set at a higher level , being keen to invest in further instruction which will broaden their horizon of skills and confidence. Matching the fitness and ability of course members is given a high priority. Please be assured that the programmes are not only set for super fit people whose sights are firmly focused on a steep and forbidding north face. In fact most folk have ambitions of a lesser nature, thank goodness!! |
West Coast Mountain Guides aim to help people interested in visiting mountainous regions do so with confidence. Help is given by advice, instruction and guiding. Everyone can extend their horizons by investing in proper tuition, given with sensible and friendly encouragement.
centres,
charitable groups and since 1988 programmes tailored for his own
mountaineering company as shown on this web site. Visits to the
Alps (25 seasons), Mt McKinley, Mt Kenya, Baffin Island, The Atlas
Mountains, The Andes, Labrador, The N.W. Territories, Aoraki/Mt
Cook and the Himalayas add breadth to the experience on which
the activities are based.
Staff
in the British Isles will be experienced and suited to the particular
activity on which they are working. Many instructors and guides
you will meet spend their year traveling, climbing and working
on mountains throughout the world. This experience brings a rich
breadth of knowledge, which they will share with you. Some of
the staff will be IFMGA members. Others will be members of AMI.
A few will be instructors under training by Alan Kimber himself.
The
programmes of instruction and private guiding will vary in content
and length. Anything from a single days instruction to a two week
alpine holiday. The aim is to be flexible in order to meet the
varied demands of customers. Activities take place throughout
Britain and Europe on a yearly basis. More detailed information
of the courses is shown at different parts of this site. If the
activity or dates you are interested in does not appear please
ask. Customer-led packages are always a possibility. Courses are
run with small numbers in order to follow normal sensible mountaineering
traditions and give maximum benefit to those taking part.
Many
of the courses and private guiding are based on Scotland's west
coast in the town of Fort William. In particular the winter weeks/weekends
are very popular, as are the spring and summer rock climbing and
scrambling. For people who would like a course run in England
or Wales, this is also possible, thus saving time and expense
of traveling north. For many the Alps provide a logical step on
from Scottish winter courses. Wherever there are mountains or
cliffs, we can be there.
